New Unit Costs of Health and Social Care Programme
In 2022, the Personal Social Services Research Unit (PSSRU) at the University of Kent and the Centre for Health Economics (CHE) at the University of York began an exciting and innovative collaboration to estimate unit costs for health and social care and to deliver an annual volume. This builds on PSSRU’s successful approach and long experience to produce, publish and present information about costs, as outlined in the Story So Far tab. Funded by the National Institute of Health and Care Research (NIHR) Policy Research Programme (PRP), PSSRU and CHE will together move the Unit Cost Programme forward over the next five years.
Knowing the cost of health and social care services plays an important role in informing what support is provided to those who need help. The cost of services affects choices about health and social care provision and about how best to spend limited care budgets. Using consistent and reliable cost information is important for decision-makers in health and social care and for research.
The aim is to ensure the results are up-to-date, comprehensive, responsive and relevant to those who use them. There are five associated work packages.
Work package 1: Review and scope
We will annually review the developments in the health and social care sectors (e.g. new services, new datasets) to ensure our cost estimations are up to date and relevant.
Work package 2: Enhancing what we offer
Throughout the programme, we will work with users of the cost information (e.g. health and social care professionals, individuals who require help from care services and their family carers, alongside general members of the public) to explore how to best produce and publish this information in a useful form.
Work package 3: Costing approach
We will continuously explore whether we can improve on the way we calculate costs, what data we use, and how we report the information.
Work package 4: Involvement and Engagement
We will involve users of our cost estimates in the research programme to ensure that their views inform the design, direction, and content. Activities will include stakeholder workshops to help understand how people use unit costs in practice.
Work package 5: Unit Costs of Health and Social Care Manual
We will produce annual cost estimations drawing on the four work packages above.
